Instant messaging has become an important communications tool for millions of people worldwide. Instant messaging (or “IM”) is a form of real-time communication between two or more users based originally on typed text but which has since been expanded to include other media such as audio and video. The data is conveyed via computers connected over a network such as the Internet. Instant messaging requires the use of a client program that connects to an instant messaging service and differs from e-mail in that “conversations” are then able to happen in real time.
In some cases, the power of instant messaging can be harnessed to deliver services to users. This is done by designing artificial intelligence applications (or “applets” or “bots”) and registering these applets as clients of the instant messaging service. However, rather than functioning as conversational end users, the applets provide services to users at large. One example of such a service is a database search (e.g., Internet search) based on a user query. In this scenario, a user who wishes to engage a search engine applet first learns the identity of the instant messaging client associated with the search engine applet. The user then sends an instant message containing a query to the client associated with the search engine applet, thereby invoking a database search. When the database search is complete, the search engine applet (which is logged in to the instant messaging service as a client) sends an instant message containing the search results back to the user.
Similar applets can be designed to provide other services that employ instant messages to inform a user of various events. However, as can be appreciated, the user may find it annoying to receive updates via instant message whenever an event takes place, especially when such events are likely to occur often. Similarly, if the user receives an update via instant message but then forgets the information that it conveys, the user will have difficulty recalling this information, since the prior instant message conveying this information is not easily accessible and may even have been erased from memory.
Thus, persons skilled in the art will appreciate that there is a need for improving the “user experience” associated with the conveyance of information to users of an instant messaging service.